In a shocking revelation, the head coach of the Russia FS National Wrestling Team has chosen to crack down on foreign wrestlers. By foreign, the head coach means Russian-origin wrestlers who are competing under non-Russian flags. The Olympic legend stunned everyone by announcing that ‘foreign’ wrestlers are no longer allowed to train with the Russian National Team.

The World Wrestling Championships recently witnessed the rise of a massively powerful wild card in the 79kg weight class. Russian FS head coach, Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, made the announcement almost immediately after the unexpected development that cost Russia an almost guaranteed gold medal.

Wrestling legend drives away ‘foreigners’ from home training

Khadzhimurat Gatsalov is a five-time world wrestling champion hailing from Russia who currently coaches his country’s national team. The heavyweight wrestling legend recently debarred all Russian-origin foreign wrestlers from training with Russia’s top wrestlers. According to a tweet on X, “The head coach of the Russian FS national team Hadjimurat Gatsalov said that now foreign wrestlers (Russian origin) who are competing for other countries will not train with the Russian national team.” While this came as a shock to everyone, several people believe that they saw the crackdown coming from a mile away. In fact, it was bound to happen after the unprecedented rise of Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov.

Akhmed Tazhudinov caused a major upset for both the US and Russia at the 2023 World Wrestling Championship. The 20-year-old effortlessly neutralized both America’s Kyle Snyder and Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev to claim the 79kg gold medal. This was the first major defeat for Sadualev since 2017 who dominates the entire world and is Russia’s guaranteed gold winner. While the medal-less loss of Sadulaev was hard enough, the fact that Tazhudinov is of Russian origin hit harder. 

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Tazhudinov hails from Dagestan, which is a Russian Republic. Moreover, the Bahraini wrestler also sees Sadulaev as his role model and trains at an institute named after him. However, Gatsalov’s latest decision will bar anyone competing for different nations from training with the national team despite their origin. Interestingly, there was a time when Khadzhimurat Gatsalov himself competed for a different nation. In fact, according to an interview, he was very happy about it as well.

Khadzhimurat Gatsalov’s escapade to Armenia

Khadzhimurat Gatsalov decided to leave behind his home country and compete for Armenia when Russia was banned from international competitions. The ban was exercised after Russia was caught in a doping scandal, effectively delisting all Russian athletes from all sports. While several athletes decided to stay behind or compete as independent and neutral athletes, several decided to switch flags. Interestingly, Khadzhimurat Gatsalov was from the latter party. Quite unsurprisingly, the incident happened not too long ago and he switched to the Armenian side in 2019. 

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Speaking at an interview back then, Gatsalov said, “We knew that Armenia needed a wrestler in the 97 kg class to replace Georgy Ketoev, as he had weight problems. It was perfect timing as I was also looking for a suitable country, as I still have a desire to fight, and the Olympic Games are ahead.” Gatsalov, the 2004 Olympics gold medalist for Russia, was very happy about the transition and how quickly he got an Armenian passport. In light of his actions not too long ago, the move sounds rather controversial. After all, Gatsalov wasn’t even Russia’s head coach till November 2022 and hasn’t even spent a year in his new position. Will this move yield any success in wrestling for Russia at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics?

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